The Wounded (The Woodlands Series)

by Taylor, Lauren Nicolle

  I squatted down at the entrance to our allocated quarters, letting the thick blanket curtain, secured by clothes pegs to a metal line, hide part of my face. From here, everything looked half-enchanted/half-soggy with moss. The people of Monkey City had literally carved a life out of solid rock. Chipped-out, small living caves beneath the train tunnels. We were at the top of a tiered area, which fell away like giants’ steps to the water canal running through the middle. The space was unnervingly circular, which gave me the creeps. Hollows carved into the rock glowed golden with candles and solar lanterns. It was a like a huge, black beehive, gone damp and moldy with age.

  These people were not unlike the Survivors, less brave perhaps. Kind of guarded and dirty, but they had the same feel about them. They moved with purpose, they had their jobs, but unlike the Survivors, their sole purpose was to live and go unnoticed. Except for the monkeys. They were super-intelligent but aimless. This led to extreme naughtiness. They were territorial, they stole, and they screamed as you walked passed them. The only place they weren’t allowed to roam freely was the infirmary.

  I turned inwards, letting the curtain close, and gazed at my two boys sleeping. The coolness of the underground lair caused Joseph to pull his blankets up under his chin. Orry was wrapped tight as a mummy in the carrier. He was getting too big for it, and I’d already removed the top half. Soon his feet would be hanging over the edge.

  I left them.

  Tiptoeing along the curved path, I glanced down. Rash was down there somewhere, bunking with my father. Pietre and Careen were there too. They were always easy to find. You just had to follow the screaming, the tinned goods hitting the rock with a dull clang and rolling down, down to the canal. Careen couldn’t get away from him now. I shook my head, feeling my hair move in one big clump. I refused to wash in the black water and had become pretty filthy.

  I walked towards the cool light pouring from the infirmary entrance, feeling the sadness dragging me down.

  *****

  She was clinging to life like a drowning spider. And she looked like one too, her frame so thin and angular I was sure I could just grab one of her arms, pull, and it would snap off in segments. But Alexei wouldn’t let her go. Hessa wouldn’t either.

  The infirmary was the only place I could escape those damn monkeys, but I didn’t like being in there. I didn’t know what to say, how to act. Apella was not one for jokes. Alexei was kind of losing it. Matthew was trying, but there was nothing he could do. He kept saying it too, like he thought I was going to ask him to tell me something different. I wouldn’t. There was nothing.

  It was such a contrast to the rest of the place. The floors and walls were covered in bright orange plastic, colorful, patterned shower curtains were strung up between the beds that had been scavenged from the city’s dilapidated hospital. There were the shiver-worthy beeps and blips I’d never get used to. Each machine was hooked up to solar batteries, rusted around the edges from use. This was their hospital: rust, leftovers, and shower curtains.

  I dragged my feet towards the bumblebee curtain. They were z-z-zing around a daisy with a face, which was weird, but weirder still was the big smile. I wouldn’t be smiling in here.

  I took a deep breath and, on cue, Apella started coughing, a deep, rattling cough that ended in a gag.

  I stalled. I wasn’t scared of sick people, but I always worried my presence just made it worse. I wasn’t cheery or medical, so I couldn’t help in that way. All I could do was stick my pointed nose in and talk nonsense.

  I was about to turn around when I saw bare, caramel-colored little feet poking out from beneath the curtain. They inched forward, and a small, perfect face pushed into the curtain shrouded by plastic bumblebees. I gasped.

  Hessa laughed and stumbled forward until all of him was revealed. He was walking. I felt a swell of pride. He shuffled towards me, arms out in front like a zombie from one of the horror movies Joseph had shown me on the reader, and made a lunge for my legs, wrapping both his arms around me. I brought him up to my face and gave him a squeeze. Deshi, I wish you had seen that, I thought as I nuzzled my face into Hessa’s huge mass of curls, letting a tear get soaked up in his hair. “You clever boy,” I whispered. “Your father will be so proud of you.” Your mother would be too.

  They’d heard me, so I swept back the curtain like I hadn’t been about to run. Apella smiled weakly and went to pull the oxygen mask off her face with her white-as-a-sheet arm. I put my hand up to stop her, but she did it anyway.

  “When did this start?” I asked as I placed Hessa on the ground and watched him totter towards Alexei, his hand reaching out for the bed frame.

  She coughed again. “Yesterday,” she croaked. She was so sick but when she talked about Hessa, a little shine sparked in her eyes. “He’s so…” She started coughing really hard this time, barely able to take a breath between. She gagged like her stomach was about to come out of her mouth. I grabbed the bowl, and she spat more black stuff into it. I couldn’t believe how much had come out of her since that day. It was almost like there was more black in there than Apella. It scared me, even though I knew it was coming. It was going to win eventually.

  “I know,” I said, beaming and trying to hold onto this sliver of good that lay at the bottom of a dusty bin of darkness. It was grubby, this hope, it was small, but we had to lock our fingers into it and not let go.

  A kind nurse came in and took the bucket I was holding. She started to speak, her words foreign and rough sounding. I gave her a confused look and she started again, speaking in a language I could understand. “Your mother is no… not… no good.” She frowned, her pale skin wrinkled around her cloudy eyes.

  I just let it sit there. The words. I put my hand over Apella’s and tried to force some of my life into her.

  I couldn’t believe we’d been here six weeks already. I couldn’t believe some of these people had lived down here their whole lives. It was so dark, so dirty. They were like moles. Kind-hearted but quiet, afraid of the light, or maybe of what might be up there.

  We all pitched in, dragging batteries up to the surface to be charged, hunting, and scavenging. Our time on the surface was minimal though, as it was not safe. The monkey people didn’t seem to mind it. They tried to avoid going up if they could, their skin pale and grimy, their eyes silver and watery in the sunlight. They didn’t talk much either, not to us anyway. They had fires near the canal, drank and sang with each other, but when we tried to approach, they got kind of quiet. I didn’t think they minded our presence, but they seemed shy, happier to converse with the monkeys than with us.

  “Where are you going?” Joseph asked as he collected a pot and some dirty mugs to take down to the canal to wash. Orry was with Odval for a play. Even he seemed bored with his surroundings. He was cranky and grizzly. I was glad he was out of my hair for a while. I kind of wanted everyone out of my hair for a while.

  I shrugged, pulling my sneakers on. “I dunno.”

  His voice was like a hammer to my ears. “Are you going to eat something?”

  I grimaced, stalking to the corner and grabbing a can. I violently poked two holes in the can of tomato soup with a screwdriver and drank the contents, with Joseph staring down at me with an amused expression.

  “Are you going to wash those?” I snapped, pointing at a collection of dishes in a tub by the wall.

  “Mmhm,” he nodded, putting his spare hand up to grasp my waist.

  I swiped my mouth with my sleeve and darted out of his way. He frowned.

  “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, surprised.

  I stared down at my feet, trying to think of a nice way to say he was driving me crazy and I needed some space. Instead, what came out was, “You’re just really annoying me right now.”

  He laughed but, when he saw my face, he stopped. “Why, what did I do?” he asked, confused.

  I looked up at his beautiful face and softened for a second. I knew it wasn’t fair but before I met him, I was very used to bein
g alone. Even in the forest, I’d had a chance to get away from everyone. Here, we were always in each other’s space, squelched together with nowhere to run. The softening only lasted a second because in that moment, it wouldn’t have mattered what he said… everything he said or did was irritating me.

  I reached my hands up and put them on his shoulders. “Nothing. I’m just going nuts in this place. I need some space. From everybody. I feel like if you stand there looking at me any longer or tell me to eat or do something, I’m going to say something I regret,” I said.

  He pursed his lips for a second, and then his mouth cracked into a grin. “You know, you’re kind of annoying me too. Why don’t you get out of my space for a bit?”

  “That’s all you’re going to say?”

  He parted the curtain and turned back to answer. “At least you warned me this time, before you went all crazy on me.”

  I smiled and threw the empty can at him. It bounced off his elbow. “Ouch!”

  As soon as he left, I felt his absence like a sharp sting.

  Lunch with Rash was always pretty entertaining, lunch with Rash and Essie even more so. I didn’t know her very well, she was quiet, but I liked the two of them together. It brought a bit of light to this shadowy world.

  Today he was juggling cans of beans and trying to hold a conversation at the same time. It led to dented knees and lots of laughter, especially from Essie. She was a giggler, and every time Rash dropped a can and swore, her whole body shook with little fits of high-pitched giggling. Orry was standing between my knees, swaying back and forth.

  “You coming up to the surface with me tomorrow, Soar?” Rash asked in a strained tone as he tried to concentrate on the cans flying above his head.

  “Yep. Wouldn’t miss it,” I said, my eyes moving in circles, tracking the cans and putting bets on which one was going to hit Rash in the head. Kidney beans, definitely. I smiled to myself.

  A can rolled behind me, the crunch of a foot stopped it from rolling over the ledge.

  “Ahem!”

  Rash’s concentration lapsed, and the cans tumbled towards his face and crotch. I tried to hold it in, but when one landed square in his lap and his face scrunched up as he rolled over the ledge, I burst out laughing. It was made worse by Essie, who giggled and then hiccup-burped. Rash shouted from up from the lower level, “What a lady!”

  Even Orry’s eyes lit up. He clapped and held his hands up like he wanted me to pick him up. Arms swooped in from behind me, and I realized Orry wasn’t looking at me.

  “Darling boy, miraculous grandson of mine,” Pelo exclaimed as he lifted Orry over my head and into his arms. I hunched my shoulders, trying to not to get upset. It was my fault anyway. I’d allowed Pelo to spend time with Orry. They’d bonded or something. My mouth was a flat line, jealousy carving an unflattering wrinkle in my brow.

  Rash’s head popped up, just his eyes, like a toad above pond water, and then he scrambled over the ledge. He grabbed Essie by the waist and squeezed. She jumped and then smacked the side of his face. I liked her.

  Pelo opened his mouth to speak, my ear inadvertently closing over as the air rushed over his lips. Then Careen bashed into him from behind, clipping his shoulder. Essie stared her down like she was hoping she’d burst into flames. It was unnecessary. Careen was already on fire. Her face was red, and her eyes intense. She grabbed both my shoulders and shook me.

  “I’m going to kill him!” she shouted.

  Pelo took a step back, Orry still in his arms, “Is it all right if I take Orry for a walk?” he appealed, snatching at this opportunity. Careen’s fingers were still digging into my shoulders. She was ignoring everyone. I nodded to Pelo, who strode off quickly with my son on his bony hip.

  “Did you hear me?” Careen hissed. Her face was red and blotchy, like she’d been crying.

  I put my hands on her hands and pulled them off me. “What’s he done now?” I asked, rolling my eyes. Pietre was still being as difficult as he possibly could. The only time he managed to be halfway decent was when I brought Orry to him. Other than that, he scowled, swore, and treated Careen like dirt. If he weren’t already injured, I’d punch him. In fact, I wasn’t sure I cared about his leg any more. He needed a good punch. I squeezed my hand into a fist.

  “He’s just… well… he’s just being Pietre,” Careen said as she flopped down next to Essie, who surreptitiously shuffled a few inches away from her. Careen’s nostrils flared as she glanced down at Essie, but she didn’t say anything to her. She focused her hurried talking in my direction.

  Careen wasn’t easily rattled, but she was at the end of her patience with him. She prattled on about every insulting thing he’d said to her in the last twenty-four hours, my face getting tighter, and my heart angrier with every venom-dipped sentence she recalled. “He kicked me out, Rosa. I don’t know what to do. I think I love him or at least, I used to. It’s like when they chopped off his leg, they took the good parts of him too,” she said sadly. I waited for the weirdness to come. The part where she flicked off her seriousness and said something strange. A few seconds later, she swung her head towards Rash and asked, “Did you cut your hair? It looks darker.” I clenched my teeth together, straining not to laugh. Rash took one look at Careen and chuckled whole-heartedly.

  “Sure Red, I’m like the reverse Samson. The more you cut off, the darker and more powerful I become!”

  Careen looked at me confused, and I just shook my head. There was no explaining Rash.

  Once Rash had calmed down, he draped his hand on Essie’s knee and leaned his head down to her rounded shoulder. “Soar?”

  I was gazing distractedly down at the black water canal. It looked like oil, chopping and moving as the current carried it swiftly through the underground town and out to somewhere else. I wondered where it went. Did it look black on the outside?

  “Soar!” Rash yelled out, his hands to his mouth, the name bouncing of the walls, “oar… oar… oar.”

  “What?” I snapped.

  He leaned back from me, but in a comical way. “Whoa. No need to get snarky. I just thought…”

  Careen was staring at the ground with her head in her hands. She was exhausted. Sometimes I wished Rash could be serious for just one second. Living like this amplified everyone’s characteristics. I hated that the things I loved about people were turning on me.

  I sighed. “You just thought what?”

  He waggled those dark eyebrows of his and said, “Let’s make Pietre a leg.”

  *****

  As soon as he said it, my mind started whirring. Complicated cogs ticked over as the design stretched and grew in my mind.

  “Could you?” Careen squealed, grabbing my head in her hands and squishing my face.

  A monkey scampered past, clinging to the very edge of the stone ledge. A flash of yellow fur and a tail. I shuddered. Anything to get me out of here for a while.

  “I think I probably can,” I said through squashed lips.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, a little scared of the answer.

  Joseph looked up at me from the corner of the room. He was crouching down, sweeping up a mess of broken plates. “Nothing. Just dropped some plates.”

  “Joseph, don’t do that,” I said, creeping up to him and putting my hand on his shoulder. He tensed for a second, but then he relaxed and put his head to my hipbone.

  “I’m just frustrated. How long are we expected to live like this? I miss Desh, and I’m worried about Apella. This just isn’t what I expected. It’s not what I want.”

  I picked up the piece of wood I’d been carving. It was pretty close now. Unfortunately, I’d had to spend a lot of time staring at Pietre’s other leg to get it right. I even joked that I could glue some hair to it to make it just right, to which Pietre scowled at me nastily and spat on the floor. “It won’t work,” he’d said.

  It would work.

  Rash brought me back a pile of leather belts the other day, and now I had to work out how to mak
e a harness.

  I placed the wooden leg down and grabbed Joseph’s hand to pull him up. I tugged, but he was so damn heavy. I fell back against the wall. “Geez, it’s like you’re made of lead.”

  Joseph stood and moved to where I was, with my back against the wall. He placed his hands on either side of me, blocking me in.

  “I’m sorry, about Deshi. I wish there was something I could do,” I whispered. My breath quickened, my chest rising and falling unevenly, like the breaths of a willing, dying animal.

  He smiled sadly. “You’re doing it. You and Orry lift me out of my sadness just by being here.”

  I reached up on my tiptoes and kissed the corner of his mouth. He moved his head and our lips collided, then opened, then devoured. I hoped he knew… he was doing the exact same thing to me.

  *****

  My shirt was lifted up to my chin, and half of Joseph’s buttons were undone. But that was where it had to stop. With only a blanket separating us from everyone else, that was as far as I was willing to go. But it was torture. I got the sense that Joseph didn’t care as much as I did about who heard us, but he respected my wishes, drew back, and composed himself.

  I pulled my shirt down and heard Joseph audibly groan. I flicked him a grin.

  “Man, this is getting difficult,” he said, re-buttoning his shirt. “Maybe we should get another pass to the surface, find that building again…”

  I blushed. “Shhh! Someone will hear you.”

  He grinned at me from the bed, that beautiful grey tooth seeking me and glowing. He reached out and grabbed my hips, dragging me towards him. I made a pathetic attempt to struggle because really, I was quite happy to be dragged. He lifted up my shirt and kissed my belly button. It frowned back at him. I giggled loudly.